INDIANAPOLIS — The decision was made for Zach Boren. The linebacker-turned-fullback-turned-linebacker is now back on offense, in the eyes of the NFL.

“To be honest, I didn’t really have a choice,” Boren said.

When he got his invitation to the NFL combine, it was as a running back. At the combine, there’s no distinction between halfback and fullback.

“I was happy just to be invited,” Boren said. “Whether as a linebacker or fullback, I’m happy to be here.”

Boren grew up in Pickerington as a linebacker and committed to Ohio State thinking he would play that position. But the Buckeyes needed a fullback when Boren was a freshman, so he switched. Before the Indiana game this past October, when the Buckeyes were desperately in need of linebackers, coach Urban Meyer asked him to switch to defense.

Boren jumped at the chance, but he acknowledged wondering after the season whether the move might have hurt his NFL chances. Even if it did, he said he has no regrets.

“I think it all comes back to, I was doing whatever I could at the time to help out the team,” Boren said.

He interviewed with eight teams Thursday night. Boren said it was an adjustment looking at things from an offensive perspective again.

“I think the weirdest part … I was talking to some coaches and they were having me draw up offensive plays,” he said. “I’m like, man, obviously I came prepared, but I haven’t seen offensive plays in three months because I’ve been doing defensive things. That was a little different, training my mind to get back to the offensive side.”

Boren has been training for running-back drills but has done some linebacker drills just in case.

“If a team thought I had the skills and capability to do that, I’d love to,” he said.

Boren isn’t the fastest guy. He hopes to run in the 4.7-second range in the 40-yard dash. But he believes his football speed is sufficient.

Though he might not light up a stopwatch, he expects to impress with his bench-press drill. He said he has done 32 or 33 reps of 225 pounds in workouts and hopes to do 35 in Indianapolis.

“I know the record for a running back is 32,” Boren said.

After his season, Boren had minor arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, the same one in which he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in high school. NFL team doctors yanked and pulled on the knee yesterday, and Boren said it came through fine.

“Obviously, my knee is not going to look like a normal 21-year-old’s knee or a perfect knee,” Boren said. “(But) I played four years on it, and I think at a high level. Even this year when it wasn’t 100 percent, I think I played pretty well.”